How hard should my work be?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve often wondered why computer games are so compelling, so addictive to so many of our young people. To pin it down: they are just the right difficulty.

We all enjoy a challenge (yes, even that certain class or student you have in mind…) – it was likely selected for hundreds of thousands of years ago in our evolutionary history as a species. But, obvious though it may seem, no one likes challenges that are impossible and no one feels satisfied with challenges that are too easy. The magic number is 80%. I’m no expert on computer games, but apparently this is the root of their appeal – you will achieve about 80% of the time. Plenty of success, leaving you hungry for more, but sufficient challenge to give you that burst of achievement when you do succeed.

In terms of translation to the classroom, this one is quite straightforward. We should aim to set work on which students attain 80%. To many teachers, this is a bit frightening. We feel that wrong answers are a sign we haven’t taught it well enough; perhaps we think we’d be judged unfavourably if students are seen to be getting it wrong. My argument is that gaining a 100% success rate on work set in lessons is a sign that the tasks were too easy. Incidentally, how do you know how much they could have done if you had set harder work? The 100% success rate is dangerous because it prevents you from having an opportunity to give meaningful feedback – which is one of the key tenets of deliberate practice (see the blog on this topic). Only if there are errors can you help students move on in the depth of their knowledge – otherwise, all you can do is put on an accent and say, ‘Good job!’

When we give a set of questions or problems that are all very similar, we set ourselves up for students achieving 0% or 100%. Probably, we’d go see those struggling and re-explain; soon, they’d have 100% as well. So, we need to interleave questions on the topic of the lesson with questions on older material, and provide tricky application questions that make students think about the wider implications of their work.

So, the only time we should be seeking 100% is on the final exams!